Caparazones subject of thesis by Alexandra G. Perkins, University of Miami

[...]

Puerto Rican author Yolanda Arroyo Pizarro’s novel Caparazones (2010) also questions
how subjectivity is constructed beyond categorizations of identity. Arroyo Pizarro, like
Santos-Febres, positions her characters in trans spaces; spaces—be they geographic,
gendered, racialized, or sexualized—that are not necessarily rigidly categorized. In fact,
some contemporary literary representations of transnational subjecthood move away from
reconciling questions of identity and instead queer national, sexual, and racial identities,
among others. These identifications are de-essentialized to resist normative impulses
towards discrete categorization, and exemplify the nomadic, incoherent, and chaotic
articulation of identity in the twenty-first century. Caparazones demonstrates this move
away from grappling with discrete markers of identity, and rather focuses upon the ways
in which subjectivities, nation, sexuality, race, and gender play on and against the bodies
of her protagonists. Notably, however, Arroyo Pizarro does not refuse naming particular
identities, and in fact, the interplay of identities is key in her work. Alternatively, it is the
superposition of fields of identitary influence that construct or assemble the protagonists
of her novel.

[...]

Yolanda Arroyo Pizarro’s Caparazones also explores the formation of alternative
types of family, which are engendered and practiced through transnational movement.
Caparazones challenges the homeland-to-diaspora telos, moving beyond the binary
relationship between the two. By decentralizing discrete categories of identity in a
transnational context, the novel reformulates the literary and historical impulse present in
many works by authors who represent, write, or form part of the literary diaspora of the
Caribbean. Arroyo Pizarro utilizes the space of transnationality to question monolithic
and hegemonic understandings of national, sexual, gender, and racial identity. Her two
protagonists, Nessa and Alexia, move in a seemingly placeless and timeless existence,
although their movement across geographic borders is palpable. Time and space,
understood as categories that regulate human existence, are decentralized for a fluid, in
flux movement across time and space. Arroyo Pizarro creates a non-linear narrative that
moves back and forth through time and place to highlight the malleability of identity. In
my analysis of Caparazones, I consider how subjects are represented in transnational
space and how they queer affective bonds, but more specifically I underscore how Arroyo
Pizarro deliberately employs a non-linear, inchoate, and at times vague style in order to
reinforce the non-centeredness of transnational experiences.

[...]


Perkins, Alexandra G., "Queer Transnationality: Narrative, Theatre, and Performance Across Temporal, Spatial, and Social Geographies" (2014). Open Access Dissertations. Paper 1214.

A DISSERTATION
Submitted to the Faculty of the University of Miami
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy
http://scholarlyrepository.miami.edu/oa_dissertations/1214